Don’t get arrested in Qatar

First things first, you don’t want to find yourself at the mercy of the Qatari legal system. It’s slow and archaic, has little regard for justice and assumes all foreigners are guilty until proven otherwise.

So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you may have to argue your case in a local court there’s a lot to be said for simply driving your car to the airport, buying a one-way ticket home, and cutting your loses.

Seriously though, there’s a long and shonky history of judicial ‘prejudice’ to wade through. Just Google French footballer Zahir Belounis or Al Jazeera Children’s Channel manager Mahmoud Bouneb to read the horror stories. In both instances the men found themselves stuck in the country, unable to work, and at the mercy of a shonky and indifferent legal system because of a falling out with their employer.

Or there’s the case of French businessman Jean-Pierre Marongiu. He was trapped in the country after a dispute with a business partner who claimed he passed bad cheques. The guy eventually lost his mind and kayaked to neighbouring Bahrain, where he was subsequently picked up by local authorities and deported back to Qatar.

But here’s the real kicker. Any Qatari accused of breaking the law is presumed innocent and treated with kid gloves. Like the owner of a child care centre where 13 kids lost their lives in a fire.

Turned out he was a Qatari diplomat, Sheikh Ali Bin Jassim Al Thani, with close links to the royal family. So the whole thing was swept under the carpet and no charges were ever laid. Make of that what you will.

Trapped in Qatar

No one thinks they’re going to get barred from leaving the country… until it actually happens.

Like the Canadian museum staffer I worked with who was turned back at customs while attempting to fly home for the holidays.

She had been placed on a ‘no fly list’ by her employer, while they conducted a secret audit of all the pieces in the museum collection. Oh, and she wasn’t the only one. All 30 staff from the museum where on that same list. They just didn’t know it.

Anyway, this woman had to wait several weeks before she was eventually cleared to leave. At which point she obviously resigned and left the country for good.

Which just goes to show the arbitrary nature of law and order in Qatar, and how you can find yourself detained and unable to leave without having broken any actual laws.

Plain clothes police

Qatar has various police departments, each assigned to their own beat.

The ones you need to worry about are the guys who look after internal security. While their main priority is to keep the royal family safe, they also maintain broader law and order in the country, and that extends to the supply of drugs and other vice.

According to various ‘unofficial’ sources, you’ll find plain-clothes police in various bars and clubs keeping an eye on people. Qatar is small place with a very tight-knit community. So you can pretty much assume that anyone who is operating outside the boundaries will attract attention.

How the security forces respond to any given situation will depend on a person’s nationality, family connections and a host of other factors. But if your new found friends are popping bottles in the VIP and doing coke at the after-party there’s a good chance the authorities are looking the other way. Or, maybe they’re right there in the bathroom with you.

US Special forces in Qatar

So here’s where it gets interesting…

The ratio of Qataris to foreign workers is something like 30:70. In other words, Qataris are a minority in their own country. This can make them apprehensive, and the royal family goes out of its way to alleviate this with very generous social and economic perks.

Still, it doesn’t take a genius to do the maths. If all those disgruntled foreigners were to rise up they could seize power through sheer numbers. And who would stop them?

As it turns out, that not-very-secret U.S. military base in the centre of the country has a dual purpose. According to (completely unverified) conversations with locals, the U.S. military is under orders to maintain the monarchy at all costs, and in the event of large scale civil uprising are authorised to roll into the streets and do whatever is necessary to keep 1.6 million South Asian labourers from claiming the country as their own.

Admittedly, it’s a far fetched scenario. But stranger things have happened. If nothing else the above should give you some insight into the unique tensions that exist in Qatar.

You can find more tips on living and working in Qatar in my book — God Willing: How to survive expat life in Qatar.